Bottle cap hoax snares Newport News resident

NEWPORT NEWS NOTEBOOK

Newport News resident Tiffany Ward was duped by a hoax that claimed you could collect plastic bottle caps to help those suffering from cancer.

Supposedly, every cap collected would pay for a minute of chemotherapy.

But here's the good news.

Ward — and anyone else tricked by the urban myth — can bring their plastic bottle caps to Aveda salons, where they will be recycled. In Newport News, the Aveda salon, called Animare Salon, is on 704 Mariners Way. Ward said in just a few weeks, she had already collected many bags full of caps, and had neighbors, friends and relatives collecting, too.

"We just thought we were doing a good thing," Ward said. "But at least now they won't be sitting in a landfill."

Domenick Casuccio, a spokesman with the American Cancer Society, said the myth has spread mostly through Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and Washington, D.C.

"We wish we could pay for chemotherapy with the bottle caps, but we can't," Casuccio said. But Casuccio said the plastic bottle caps don't have value needed for the cancer society to be able to accept them as donations.

If you would like to donate to the American Cancer Society, check out www.cancer.org.

Church opens for Easter

The River Church will hold its first service at its new church on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard this Sunday, Easter Sunday.

The Rev. Silva Whitaker said she and others have been working more than a year to renovate the former Wachovia Bank building, which is located on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard near Old Oyster Point Road.

"We weren't even thinking about having it ready for Easter Sunday, but it happened," Whitaker said. "It must have been divine intervention."

Whitaker said in the interim the church, which has about 50 members, worshiped at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center. She said they've also done charitable work while waiting for the church to open, including helping the homeless find housing, distributing food and gas gift cards to low-income families and family counseling.

Updates on drywall

The Hollymeade subdivision in Newport News was featured on " NBC Nightly News" Monday for its Chinese drywall problems. The story, which has received extensive local media coverage, focused on homeowners suffering from the noxious gases emanating from the drywall. Relief has been slow in coming, homeowners say.

Featured on Monday were Preston and Rachael McKellar and Fred and Vannessa Michaux. Both couples were included as plaintiffs in a federal Chinese drywall trial in New Orleans last month.

Eric Bailey, another Hollymeade homeowner and Chinese-drywall activist, said he was there for the taping of the NBC segment. .Today in Richmond, the state's Chinese drywall task force gathers for its first meeting at the Patrick Henry Building. The 2 p.m. meeting is open to the public, but local meetings will be scheduled at a later date.